踢足球(tī zú qiú) - to play football in Mandarin

踢足球 (tī zú qiú) means to play football, from 踢 (tī, to kick) and 足球 (zú qiú, football, literally "foot ball"). Mandarin names the sport by naming the action that defines it, kicking, rather than borrowing a single verb like English "play".

That choice of verb is the trap here. English uses "play" for almost every sport, but Mandarin sorts sports by how you interact with the ball or equipment: kicking sports take 踢 (tī), most racket and hand sports take 打 (dǎ), as in 打羽毛球 (dǎ yǔ máo qiú), to play badminton. Saying 打足球 (dǎ zú qiú) instead of 踢足球 (tī zú qiú) is an easy and common mistake for beginners carrying "play" over from English.

To rate how well someone plays, split the compound and insert 得 (de) plus the description between the two halves: 她踢足球踢得很好 (tā tī zú qiú tī dé hěn hǎo), "she plays football very well", repeating 踢 (tī) rather than tacking the description onto the end of the whole phrase.